Manage own performance in a business environment

Outcome 1 : Understand how to plan and prioritise work and be accountable to others
1. Explain the purpose and benefits of planning work, and being accountable to others for own work

Planning work give us a rough estimate of how much time an action or activity would take. Planning in advance has many advantages. The advantages of planning are many. It defines the hierarchy of the actions that I will be performing and it helps me be proactive and be ready to face emergencies or very short deadlines. Apart from having specific deadlines, they are many other tasks that we have to perform on a day to day, weekly and monthly basis. Planning also helps us performing better within a team. If the tasks allocated within colleagues or a department are slit and planned ahead in advance then the result should be, tasks successfully completed by allocation within the specific timeframe. I always make sure to detail in a list the tasks I’m allocated to do and make sure that I note by when each task needs to be completed. I also use categorise my emails by different tasks and plan in advance which matters are the most urgent to deal with.
This helps me be accountable to my colleagues and company.

2. Explain the purpose and benefits of negotiating realistic targets for work and ways of doing so

It is important to negotiate realistic targets to get the jobs done on time, otherwise it will have a bad impact on your performance. It is always good to plan in advance to avoid staying behind on the workload. The ways to negotiate are as following;
Planning and preparation: Have clear objectives and stay focused on these. Collect all the information needed to complete a task.
Discussion: It is worth having a discussion with more experienced staff or seniors to get advice and guidance.
Review and propose: Explain realistically your suggestions and wait for a response. Speak to the team, and take in advice and suggestions.
Bargain and settle: Look for deals that best suit the company and also do not fail to check quality.

3. Describe ways of prioritising targets and setting timescales for own work

Every job or task is important, whether urgent or not has a deadline, and has to be completed within the agreed timescale. Work and tasks have to be prioritised on the urgency and deadline on it.
We look through the different stages of the task and estimate the time it will take to complete each step. This way you will be able to set a timescale for the entire task, and decide on a date, and then start working towards completion on that day. This will help motivate yourself and spend the required time working on it, to complete it at the right time.
In order to achieve a target you need to plan in advance. You need to prioritise your work, keep notes and reminders on your calendar. Always find ways to motivate yourself as in learning new practices and applying them in day to day work. Review your work and time spent and check whether or not you would need to re-plan this.

4. Describe the types of problems that may occur during work, and ways of dealing with them

Problems can occur at anytime at work and this is a very common thing. We need to have the knowledge and professionalism to face them and resolve them without it affecting the normal functioning of the department or company. If there are situations where a task cannot be completed by its deadline, make sure to contact the people involved or the people you had to report to , explain the reasons of your delay and arrange a different date.
Sometimes, you come across IT issues which will stop you or slow you from doing your work. During these circumstances, report it to the IT Helpdesk at once and explain the situation.

5. Explain the purpose and benefits of keeping other people informed about progress

It is important to keep people informed about a project’s or task’s progress because it helps them to know what targets they need to